Bringing Behavioral Health and Telepsychiatry to Underserved People with Dr. Tom Milam Iris Telehealth

Dr. Tom Milam is the Chief Medical Officer at Iris Telehealth, which focuses on providing in-person and digital support to community mental health centers, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and rural health clinics that don't have enough access to behavioral health providers. The populations they treat are often underserved and have social determinants of health that are barriers to accessing timely care. Tom elaborates, "We're also working a lot in emergency rooms and hospitals around the country. Seeing patients there with behavioral health issues, again in organizations that don't have enough providers. And that seems to be par for the course around the country for a lot of hospitals and health systems. They need additional providers, and we're happy to provide those through telepsychiatry at Iris." "The positive thing about telepsychiatry really is that it eliminates the geographic barriers that are huge barriers for people getting care. So we can get our excellent providers into areas that have a really hard time recruiting onsite providers. So other than that, one of the things I say is that telepsychiatry is a technology. That's all that it is." @IrisHealth #IrisTelehealth #Telepsychiatry #Telepsychiatrist #Psychiatrist #BehavioralHealth #EmergencyDepartments #RuralHospitals #MedicaidPatients #MedicarePatients #SDoH iristelehealth.com Download the transcript here